Issfj



employed for the purpose, this long time bei iINiTEn STATES PATENT@FFICE.

GEORGE H. HULMES, OF CHARTIERS, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, AND \VILLIAM SHOPE, OFMILLVALE, PENNSYLVANIA.

GRAiNlNG WOOD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 320,359, dated June 16,1885.

(Specimens) T0 aZZ whom it may concern:

3e it known that we, GEORGE H. HULMES, of Ohartiers, Allegheny County,and VVILL- I an Snore, of Millvale, in the county of Allei gheny andState of Pennsylvania, have in-l vented a new and useful Improvement inlGraining \Vood; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description thereof.

Our invention relates to the graining of wood surfaces for the purposeof imitating different kinds of wood upon the surfaces of cheaper orinferior grades of wood to improve their appearance, its object being toovercome certain very serious objections in the graining process as nowpracticed, and to expedite and eheapen said process.

The process of graining woods, as now generally practiced, consists infirst priming the wood surfacethat is, killing the knots and thenpainting with ordinary lead paint to fill up the pores of the wood andgive surface thereto, this priming operation being generally consideredthe same as one coat of paint, it being necessary to destroy the knots,because the resin therein will discolor the lead paint. After this coatis dried, two more coats of paint are applied to the surface to fill thecracks and imperfections in the wood and form a graining-surface, and ithas been found practically impossible to apply these three coats ofpaint and provide a substantially perfect surface for the graining inless than tifteen days, a longer period being generally ing required forthe reason that the paint dries and contracts slowly, and unless onecoat is l permitted to dry perfectly before the other is applied thecontraction in drying will be uneven and cause strains in the paintedsurface, which, as itcontinues to dry, will cause the cracking andforming of imperfections in the finished grained surface. This cachingand breaking of the grained surface is well known to those skilled inthe art. After this surface was formed, the regular graining color wasapplied and the surface grained according to the effect to be producedand the wood surface to be imitated, and the varnish was applied toprotect thelinished grained surface.

Our improvement in the art of gra-iningl can be carried out in two orthree days, and

the surface formed is much more durable, as there is not the opportunityof its cracking and breakin Our invention consists in first coating thesurface with what is termed transparent fillers to fill the pores of thewood and form a substantially smooth surface thereon next, applying oneor more coats of shellac or equivalent varnish to provide agraining-surface, and finally applying the graining color and grainingin the ordinary manner, and varnishing.

In carrying out our improvement in the art of graining, we generallytake what is known as hard-wood tiller, this being a transparent articleused heretofore to till the pores of hard wood in forming an oil-finishthereon. There are many different kinds of this tiller manufactured forthe above purpose, and the exact ingredients thereof need not bementioned. This tiller is employed to fill up the pores of the wood andimpart thereto a smooth hard surface, resembling the surface of theharder woods which it is intended to imitate. This hardwood tiller isapplied by a brush in the ordinary manner to the surface of the wood tobe grainedthe wood generally employed for the purpose being pine. Thetiller requires but little time to dry, and within a few hours thesecond step of the process may be carried out. For the second step wepreferably employ shellac varnish, an article well known in the trade,and one or more coats of this shellac varnish are applied to the tilledsurface of the wood.

instead of the shellac varnish other suitable varnish-such as hard-woodvarnish may be employed, but we have obtained the best results in theshortest time by the employment of the shellac varnish. The varnishimparts to the wood a graining-surface suitable to receive the grainingcolor. The varnish, as generally employed, is transparent, and neitherit nor the tillers changes the natural color of the wood, this naturalcolor generally forming the under surface upon which the graining isdone; and it has the advantage that the graincr, if skilled in the art,can bring out some of the natural advantages of the wood in his work. Ifdesired, however, according to the surface to be imitated, the varnishmay be tinted in order to impart a sur face of a different color for thegraining operation. It requires but a short time for the varnish to dryproperly for the next coat to be applied to it, the shellac varnishrequiring less than an hour and the other varnishes requiring less thana day to dry properly, and we have found that both the fillers andshellac .varnish may be applied within a single day and the surface beready forthe grainin g operation. We find that even though the knots arenot destroyed the resin therein does not mar the surface of the graining-surface, as there is no lead therein to be discolored by the resin. Assoon as the surface is sufficiently dried and contracted, the next stepin the process is carried out, this being the application of thegraining color to the graining-surface formed by the fillers and varnishand the graining thereof in the usual manner according to the wood orother material to be imitated on the surface. When the grained surfaceis properly dried, it is "arnished in theusual manner to protect it fromthe action of the weather, &c.

In the practical working of our improved process we have found that thenatural surface of the wood showing through the coating of the fillersand varnish forms a fine surface to 7 grain upon in imitating all kindsof wood, and

"that it is not necessary to cover the surface. as

many different imitations of wood, and we find that we can obtain muchmore natural imitations than where the grain of the wood is entirelycovered up as in the old process. We also find that as we do away withthe three coats of paint we do away with the cause of the cracking ofthe grained surface, and consequently that the surface formed is muchmore durable than the grained surface as heretofore formed. We also 15nd that perfect work can be made andfinished by this process withinthree days, thus saving at least fifteen days over the old process ofgraining, and we find that the grained surface so formed can be highlypolished so as to impart to it an oilfinish equal to that employed withhard woods,

which cannot be obtained on the ordinary grained surface. i

The fillers and varnish employed to form the graining-snrt'ace are lessexpensive than the ordinary three coats of paint, and consequently theprocess can be performed much more rapidly and at less cost.

\Vhat we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is

The'herein-described improvement in the art of graining wood surfaces,consisting in applying transparent fillers, then applying varnish,graining on the surface so formed,-

and varnishing, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

In testimony whereof we, the said GEORGE 'EI. HULMES and WILLIAM SnoPE,have hereunto set our hands.

J. M. KAY, JAMES F. KAY.

